Stingy (Warriors 103, Blazers 88)

Jung once observed that “often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.” On Sunday night against the NBA’s highest scoring team, the Warriors’ didn’t think their way out of their recent defensive struggles. Instead, they used their hands (and their arms, feet, bulk and quickness). There was no radical strategic adjustment to get back on track. The Warriors just worked harder. That said, the coaching staff’s intellect will be tested soon enough in finding a way to capture that intensity every night — not just in statement games against back-to-back-weary opponents.

Put whatever qualifier on it you want, the Warriors’ smothering of the Blazers — 88 points on a season-low 33.7% shooting — was an impressive team-wide effort. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala paid extra attention to the Blazers’ shooters, rushing them off the three-point line. Andrew Bogut’s usual presence in the interior convinced them not to venture too far inside on penetration, leaving them to hoist up either guarded three-pointers or awkward mid-range looks. Lillard, Matthews and Batum combined for a miserable 11-34 night. Those numbers look good next to LaMarcus Aldridge’s 2-14 line from the field — due in large part to inspired defense by David Lee, gutting it out with one good arm.

The Warriors reserved their trend of giving up 35+ point first quarters, holding the Blazers to 22 points on 38% shooting. But the encouraging start was just a warm-up for what awaited the Blazers in the third quarter. For the first 8:22 of the third quarter, the Blazers scored a single field goal (and a total of 6 points). The Warriors unleashed a game-deciding 16-2 run, thanks in part to an intriguing tweak in Mark Jackson’s substitution pattern. Andrew Bogut received his usual run during the first 6 minutes of the quarter and helped force the Blazers to the perimeter. But when it came time to sub Bogut, Jackson didn’t go to his usual sixth man Harrison Barnes or typical big-man sub Marreese Speights — he inserted Draymond Green.

With Bogut out, the Blazers instinctively started to attack the basket. But Green, Iguodala and the rest of the Warriors were ready. Green repeatedly used his quickness to cut-off lanes to the basket and block shots. Iguodala and Curry patrolled the passing lanes to pick-off the re-set passes coming from frustrated penetration attempts. Off steals and Green-inhaled defensive rebounds, the Warriors picked up the pace offensively and found open-court looks. When the dust settled by the end of the quarter, the Warriors had held the Blazers to a 12-point quarter on 16% shooting and forced 7 turnovers.

It’s unclear why Jackson opted to substitute Green for Bogut. There could have been an injury motivation, with Bogut spending the rest of the second half stretching on the floor near the Warriors’ bench. The substitution could have been intended as a message to Speights, who had a miserable second-quarter run and didn’t see action again until late in the fourth when the game was decided. But whatever the reason, the variation in Jackson’s rotation produced immediate returns. Green’s unique combination of bulk and mobility allowed him to fight in the post for position on one possession and track Lillard’s penetration on the next. The Blazers were suckered into going small to match Green’s quickness. But with Lopez out, the Blazers lost one of their best offensive rebounders and had no one in the paint to suppress the Warriors’ penetration. Green cannon-balled into the middle of the third quarter, and the ripples from the splash he made spread throughout the rest of the game — even after he fouled out early in the fourth quarter.

Some scattered thoughts:

The Harrison Barnes confidence-restoration project is fine in theory, but his completely lifeless stretches are becoming a threat to the team. During his particularly ugly first-half stretch, the Warriors shed 10 points off their early lead. Barnes has been passive on offense and often seems oddly out of position on defense. His saving grace in the second half on Sunday was hitting the boards, but that’s not enough to justify minutes. When given the choice between playing Green or Barnes, it’s hard at this point to see any justification for choosing Barnes (other than Green fouling out). Green’s defense is superior, and his offense isn’t going to be any worse than Barnes’ has been as of late. Jackson has been trying to nurse Barnes back into meaningful minutes by keeping him in the rotation, but so far there has been no improvement. It may be time for Jackson to see if watching from the bench ignites any urgency in Barnes’ game.

The Stephen Curry-Damian Lillard rivalry is one of mutual respect, and hopefully one we’ll get to enjoy for years to come. In the most recent installment, Curry scored a clear win by forcing Lillard to defend dribble penetration. Curry repeatedly turned the corner on Lillard and got a clean lane to the rim. When Lillard and other Blazers started sagging off to stop Curry’s penetration, Curry started connecting from deep-but-open threes. It was a masterful inside-outside game from Curry, culminating in a series of knock-out blows late in the fourth quarter. After nearly a 5-minute rest to start the final quarter, Curry was more mobile and aggressive than usual in his final run.

Marreese Speights played 5 minutes. A single foul is the only mark he left on the box score. His impact on the game was unfortunately greater, as his weak defense helped the Blazers jump-start their second half run. While the majority of the Warriors upped their intensity, Speights remained flat. Jermaine O’Neal and Festus Ezeli can’t get healthy soon enough.

You can quibble over whether the Blazers are as good as their record, but there’s no debate that they’re a playoff-level team in the West. While everyone expected a shootout, it wasn’t the Warriors’ offense that secured the win. The Warriors shot 41.8% from the field, with only Curry and Bogut shooting about 50%. It was the defensive energy that lit the way to victory. Hopefully whatever energy source the team tapped into is renewable.

Adam Lauridsen

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We are inconsistent. Sometimes we focus on offense and do that well and sometimes on defense. Can we learn to do both?

Zume

good point Our Team.

Believewhat

Offense was a problem. Game was lost on rebounding battle. Green would have and should have helped if he played last 6 mins of the game.

high dribble dribble

Klay Thompson: 40 minutes

Believewhat

Klay Thompson played good D on Beal but then he broke open for like 3 PTRs in a row.

Our Team

Another home loss to a mediocre team. The starters couldn’t hit anything except a few by Curry. But with Curry, Green, Speigts, Crawford and AI in there, they defended great, held their own on the boards and were much quicker and more effective on offense. They dominated the Wizards in Q3 and then, of course, MJ pulled them. I would not have come back with all the starters in Q4 with 8 mins left. I would have gone longer with the small team–Wash’s bigs were way too slow to match up with Green and Barnes or even Speights and Green. Gortat tried to give us that game in Q4 with two key batted balls out of bounds and a missed 3 foot bunny shot. We still couldn’t pull it out.

SJ Jim

That’s what I’m saying. Too many.

SJ Jim

None of the post game analysts on Comcast has mentioned how many turnovers we committed tonight. I haven’t seen a total yet, although I just heard that Curry had six. Many we’re careless.

high dribble dribble

other than pulling Bogut, has Jax ever not gone with other 4 starters to close a close game this year?

he really thinks he is a “flow coach” because he might sub Green instead of Speights in the 2nd half but there was no chance he was going to play Crawford at the end tonight – it’s not in Jax’s DNA – only way it will happen is when a starter fouls out or is injured — further he doesn’t really believe in cold shooting — not sure how many Klay would have to miss before he would tell him not to shoot – I’m not even really criticizing him – that’s just how he coaches

El Topo

Why dubs lost:
Green 17 minutes
Barnes 23 minutes

Bogut 29 minutes
Klay 40 minutes

Curry 4 asts 6 TOs
Lee 2-10 5 RBs

Believewhat

Wizards now 9-3 over last 12 games on road. So, I wouldn’t exactly call them mediocre but one Warriors let get away.

Camelot

MJ, you are the one that kept Klay in for 40 minutes!

high dribble dribble

box score says 19 although Washington had 18

Curry had a few bad give-aways and additionally seems like he threw about 4-5 passes that could have been caught but were fumbled away

Guest

19.

Believewhat

More bogut= More rebonding and more possessions. Wizards win rebounding battle 56-47, 7 more offensive rebounds and resulting in 10 more FGAs for wizard. You can’t win if your opponent takes 10 more shots.

Can we get a developmental coach who develops coaches like how players get a development coach to work on their skills ?

Peter Moto

have mentioned this before — statistically, the over/under for woeyr turnovers pushing a win or a loss is 18 — 19 or more, they’ve lost nearly every game (or won very narrowly). has the coaching staff even worked on plans b or c when both components of the curry – lee offense, or two of the curry/lee/thompson trio are not shooting well ? as long as they’re not preparing options, the defenses will only get tougher, knowing what they’ll be seeing.

Camelot

This is a night when both answer are correct.

coltraning

In a mirror of the wolves game, holding a team to 38% and 88 points is plenty of defense, but when your starters shoot 30% and you score 85 you beat barely anyone. Dubious distinction, Ws are now 20 and THREE when holding a team to <102.

Guest

Did I just hear from warriorsvox Tyler had a career high 17 points…???

coltraning

Huh?

Believewhat

There is no plan b or c, I doubt if there is even plan a. Flow coaching doesn’t require planning.

To end the 1st half, coach goes with Barnes on Wall who was very well defended by Curry but have to subbed at that point as he has already picked a foul. I was screaming at the TV and surely John Wall gets an easy bucket. That is 2 points and going to half time feeling good for Wiz.

Camelot

Crappy play at tipoff and start of 3rd qrtr..

Peter Moto

Believewhat, have also brought this up before, regarding how a coaching staff is cultivated and developed. we all understood the original plan, with Malone and the preacher nearly being equals in the hierarchy. this concealed one of the main flaws in making an absolute novice, completely lacking an apprenticeship, the head coach. jackson never learned how to assemble a staff, delegate, supervise them. an ambitious assistant coach who is eager to improve and learn isn’t going to join this staff and stick around for any length of time — consider, in contrast, how long budenholzer stayed with popovich — because there will be many aspects of coaching he simply won’t learn with the preacher as the boss.

Believewhat

Agree moto. Not much of a learning experience under preacher. I am already on record saying that preacher will be replaced in summer if a better coach available and then owners might go over cap to get another piece to contend. I don’t see owners go over cap to bring in important addition with Jax as coach with doubts on how he will integrate new player.

I gave props to coach as I have seen lot of good decisions last game, but if there was ever a game where starters get more rest, it was this game. Dubs wasted a great contribution from bench.

dr_john

Then that’s not good D—right?

dr_john

Casting aspersions on the flow coach? tsk. . .

SJ Jim

That almost ended up costing us the opportunity to have Curry available down the stretch.

Believewhat

Inconsistent D. Could be effect of playing heavy mins. Speaking of D, Curry has been impressive of late on defense.

SJ Jim

Even if we missed the playoffs this year, I just can’t see Jackson getting fired. I’m not even inclined to say he should be. I just don’t think Lacob is going to give up on MJ that soon.

Jackson has flaws, but so does this team.

high dribble dribble

On NBA stats website you can re-watch every play — I just took a look at Lee’s 10 shots Link below – excludes those where he was fouled)

it really is remarkable how he has no pump-fakes when close-in — he either goes for the quick-release (which works sometimes but not today) or tries to go strong to the rim (which seems to rarely work) — a quick move with a good pump fake would seem to get guys like Nene or Gortat in the air every time — maybe he did it a couple of the times he got fouled but i don’t remember seeing it

I tend to agree — more likely case would be maybe hiring a more-experienced assistant

but if they miss the playoffs then it might be possible

high dribble dribble

hate to say it but the way Memphis and Minnesota and Denver are playing, missing the playoffs is more likely than finishing in the top 4 right now

dr_john

“Flaws”? And Lacob is going to keep him? Nope.

He paid 6 million for a coach to not coach. This team is supposed to be winning and it is not.

high dribble dribble

question is not what Lacob should do but what will he do.

If they miss playoffs w/out any crazy injuries then it’s a possibility

but let’s say they finish 8th and lose to OKC in 5 games in the first round with most of the games competitive – by most accounts that would be a very poor under-performing season but my instinct is that Lacob would still keep him for another year

SJ Jim

?

Flaws? Yes.

Lacob is going to keep him? Yes, That’s what I expect.

“This team is supposed to be winning and it is not” Well, that’s an oversimplification. Look, I aint a happy fan right now either, but whether they’re winning enough (or will win enough) to satisfy Lacob enough to keep MJ is still an open question, I would think.

Our Team

Yeah. His name was Mike Malone.

strummer

if crawford is the guy they got to better replace what they are missing in Jack, then why isn’t crawford closing out games?